One of the biggest challenges of moving to an online classroom environment is the limited engagement or interaction between the teachers and the students. Even the talkative students are not so talkative anymore and do not engage as much as they would have in a physical setup. It therefore becomes even more important for teachers to maybe take that extra step to build a relationship with students in an online setup and ensure that they are comfortable with this novel format and trust their teachers the way they used to.
Five fun activities for online classes:
1. Visual storytelling: It’s rather a very simple and a fun activity where the teachers can share a visual/picture with students using a whiteboard, and one by one every student makes a story revolving around that picture. This will not only be an anchor point for engaging students but will also enhance the creative side of their minds. An interesting twist to this can be one-worded stories, where a student says one word and the next on camera says the next word eventually turning it into a story.
2. Role play: We all enjoy reading a good literature and can use probably one of the plays in our textbooks to make online classes more interactive. Students and teachers can dress up as different characters from a play, and can enact scenes during the class. This would not only be an entertaining activity which is refreshing both for students and the teachers but they would also complete a part of their academic syllabus in a fun way.
3. Quizzes: It is possibly the most interesting way to learn new things which allows students to memorise and learn information in small chunks in a very engaging way. Teachers can prepare polls and quizzes with multiple choice questions for students to answer during the live class and let them know on the spot if their answer is right or not. This also creates an atmosphere of a very healthy competition among students.
4. Pictionary: Pictionary is a game that can be easily played in an online environment. After diving the class into various sub-groups, one student from each group is chosen to draw the subject-related concept or object within the given time and the rest of the students in the group identify what s/he has drawn. The first group to correctly guess the word wins the point. Online whiteboards can be used seamlessly for this activity and a quick gaming session similar to this will not only be refreshing for the students but will also increase the possibility of them being attentive throughout the class.
5. Charades: Although this game is not originally academic in nature but it’s an excellent tool for behaviour management that enhances teamwork and understanding amongst students. In a variation of the same game, a student can act out a word related to the topic from their subject, and whoever guesses first can act the next word out.
Are there any other activities that you have tried during online classrooms and have found them useful? Do share it with us at contact@learnpod.in.
